Thank-you to the BC Arts Council for supporting my journey with papermaking!
Fantastic Fungi at the salmon arm art gallery from Sept 13th to Nov 9th, 2024
“Mouncea”
Research is showing that women are key to the recovery of the natural world. As women share, and in some cases take over, habitats traditionally inhabited by men, women elevate ecosystems with them. The women today are finding more and more examples from herstory that were previously ignored as inspirations. Irene Mounce was a Canadian mycologist who contributed to the understanding of biodiversity and life cycles of fungi species until she was essentially fired for getting married. Sarah’s work reflects on and honours Irene’s work depicting notes with handmade papers and natural dyes including lobster mushroom and wolf lichen.
“Le7 Tmicw” Exhibition at the Salmon Arm Art gallery from July 8th-Sept 9th, 2023.
“Her Voice gives hope to the future of biodiversity” Soundscape of voices of trees by Olyn Baker. The video below was taken just after installation when the room was still light. The piece is meant to change depending on light or lack of light to highlight the connections still happening in the dark.
Her Voice Gives Hope to the Future of Biodiversity
Research is showing that women are key to the recovery of the natural world.
Sarah is exploring the relationship that women have with the land and ecosystem health and how bringing women's voices back from extinction relates to curbing the world’s current mass species extinction. Feminine aspects can come from any gender, and these aspects can include seeing the bigger picture and connections, nourishing and care-taking of others, empathy and gentleness. Her Voice encompasses the thoughtful use of paper, recycled cloth fibres, natural dyes and inks, often found in Sarah’s own backyard. The paper is reflective of human and ecosystem vulnerability, and has the potential to biodegrade, pointing towards themes of impermanence.
Two women Sarah has looked up to have informed her artwork in this exhibition. Suzanne Simard is a professor of Forest Ecology and has spent her life researching the interconnectedness of the forest, mycorrhizal fungi, and biodiversity. In doing so, Simard has proven what she had already intuited as a child and what Indigenous people already knew as fact. Her voice has heralded change in settlers thinking of the forest as an inanimate resource, and instead shown scientifically how trees and forests are like us. Not only are trees intelligent beings that form families and societies with other plant species, they also look after one another and communicate with neurotransmitters just as our own brains do. She continues to work on changing peoples view and forest management policies through her “Mother Tree Project” which researches biodiversity, forest intelligence and carbon capture in forests.
Elaine Sedgman is a Kamloops author, illustrator and artist who has worked tirelessly to promote biodiversity and habitat preservation in BC’s wild bee population. She visits schools and speaks about the importance of native pollinators. She has also helped Kamloops and area gardeners and landscapers re-imagine pollinator friendly habitat, while also working with researchers from TRU to organize pollinator counts on behalf of the Thompson Shuswap Master Gardeners. Her latest book is a story about the mining bee, which is among the 70% of bee species that live underground.
Below is the process of making the root system. I would not have been able to do this without the help of family and friends and the Salmon Arm Art Gallery!. Each root took 5 hours or more to make. These pictures don’t include the hours of experimenting with dying yarn and cloth and making papers from plants ahead of time.
